Coronavirus: ACCI survey finds border closures hitting business hardest, as dole queue grows

Border closures are having the biggest impact on small and medium-sized businesses returning to normal trade.

Opposition resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon. Picture: AAP

Border closures are having the biggest impact on small and medium-sized businesses returning to normal trade, as new welfare data shows the number of younger Australians moving on to the dole has doubled since March.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s third COVID-19 business survey, polling 158 businesses between July 6 and August 7, revealed Victoria’s second wave has had a significant impact on business confidence.

The ACCI report found JobKeeper had been the most important government support measure with almost 90 per cent of respondents accessing the wage subsidy scheme, followed by the cashflow boost (50 per cent) and increase in instant asset write-off (9 per cent).

Of the government restrictions placed on business, 28 per cent said limits on interstate travel were affecting their work the most.

 

The 1.5m social distancing rule was also severely impacting 27 per cent of respondents, a quarter of businesses were worst-affected by mass gathering restrictions and 21 per cent said the one person-per-4sq m density rule was taking the biggest toll on their operations.

At the same time, new Department of Social Services data showed the number of Australians aged 34 and under receiving JobSeeker and youth allowance payments had increased to almost 700,000 by August, up from 328,000 in March.

The overall number of JobSeeker recipients at the end of July jumped to more than 1.45 million, up from 792,814 in March.

Ahead of federal parliament returning next week to finalise extensions to the JobKeeper and JobSeeker programs, Labor is pushing the Morrison government to maintain higher rates of welfare support beyond the September cut-off, when the payments are due to be scaled back.

Opposition resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon joined frontbench colleague Bill Shorten in declaring the government must maintain an adequate welfare safety net to avoid wider economic damage.

“What Scott Morrison needs to remember is that a precipitous withdrawal (of JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments) could send government tax revenues falling further and cause dole queues to grow larger, having a more negative impact on the budget compared with spending on support for a longer period,” Mr Fitzgibbon told The Australian.

The ACCI business survey reported trading conditions for one-third of businesses “became worse between May and June with sales continuing to fall”.

While 32 per cent of businesses were concerned about their long-term viability in ACCI’s May survey, when government restrictions were beginning to ease, this jumped to 66 per cent in July and August as Victoria went into a second, harsher lockdown.

Forty per cent said they would not be able to operate without government support at this point in the pandemic, with nearly three-quarters of those surveyed calling for the wage subsidy scheme to be extended to help their recovery over the next two to three years.

“Almost 60 per cent of businesses indicated that they were prepared for the end of the government support measures, with 16 per cent able to return to normal operations and 43 per cent able to continue but may need to scale back their operations and/or reduce staff numbers,” the ACCI COVID-19 survey said.

ACCI said the easing of trading restrictions had not improved conditions for almost 60 per cent of businesses, with one-third worse -off, 20 per cent seeing no change in sales and 13 per cent remaining shut. The effects of international travel restrictions had also been felt, with 16 per cent of those surveyed – particularly importers and exporters and those in the tourism and education sectors – saying the travel ban was the worst government-imposed measure.